Join our excellent volunteers for an entertaining and informative 2.5-hour guided walk on a portion of the Bird Rookery Swamp trails near Naples, FL. Learn the history, see wildlife and enjoy the view.
Wednesdays (9:00 – 11:30 AM) – November through April
1st Sundays (1:30 – 4 PM) – November through April
4th Saturdays (9 – 11:30 AM) – November through August
The Bird Rookery Swamp Trail is part of the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (owned by the South Florida Water Management District). It includes a 1500 ft. boardwalk and nearly 12 miles of raised trails on old railroad trams. The cypress/maple swamp is home to wading birds, owls, deer, bear, panther, bobcat, limpkins, and much more.
Join CREW Land & Water Trust volunteer and FL Master Naturalist, Dr. David Cooper, for a humorous and informative 2.5 to 3-hour guided walk at the CREW Marsh Hiking Trails. Learn about the watershed as a whole, view wildflowers, animal signs, birds, butterflies, and more.
1st and 3rd Tuesday (9:00-12:00) November-April
2nd Saturday (9:00-12:00) November-April
The CREW Marsh Trails are part of the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (owned by the South Florida Water Management District). These trails meander through pine flatwoods, along the edge of the marsh, to oak hammock and popash slough. The Marsh Trails are home to FL black bears, FL panthers, bobcats, limpkins, many songbirds, and more.
” Take A Child Outside is a program designed to encourage children and adults to spend time together outdoors. By giving parents, grandparents and teachers information on outdoor
activities and places to go, our goal is to help children develop a better understanding and appreciation of the environment and an enthusiasm for exploring the natural world.”- http://www.takeachildoutside.org/
Get out to CREW :
CREW offers three different trail systems that
you can explore. The CREW Marsh Trails offers a scenic tour around Southwest Florida’s premier watershed. The Cypress Dome Trails provides a peak into the vast world of Cypress Domes, and is a great place for fall wildflowers. Bird Rookery Swamp is a 12-mile loop full of wildlife and wonders. Be prepared to get wet, and have fun. Getting children outdoors helps them not only connect to the natural world, but helps them focus in school and has shown to reduce rates of obesity. So get involved and take a child out doors!
CREW kicks off this season with three great Saturday events:
Fungi/Mushroom Hunt with Ben “Mykes logos” Dion- September 26th
This walk will feature an in-depth introduction into the world of fungi, a discussion about fungi and their roles at CREW, and hands-on mushroom hunting and field identification. It takes place at the CREW Marsh Trails off Corkscrew Road. Benjamin Dion is the founder of the Southwest Florida Mycological Society. Known as “Mykes logos” in the mushroom world, Dion is a local expert on the identification, use, and ecological role of various fungi in the Southwest Florida area.
Fall Wildflower Walk with Brenda Thomas- October 3rd
Join FGCU instructor and wildflower expert Brenda Thomas for this fabulous walk to identify fall-blooming flowers and grasses along the CREW Marsh Trails. The fall flowers are always spectacular after the wet growing season of summer. This is your chance to learn from someone whose passion for plants is unsurpassed!
Florida’s Fabulous Spiders: A CREW Strolling Science Seminar- October 10th
This is CREW’s first Strolling Science Seminar- We are starting off the season with one of the top Spider Specialist, Dr. G.B. Edwards.
Do you know how many types of spiders are in the Florida and in world? Do you know what the role of spiders are in nature? Can you identify the few types of spiders that are medically important? Do you know how to safely catch and release spiders in the home? If the answer to any of these questions is NO, then this program is for you.
We will go on a hike, looking for different kinds of spiders in their natural habitat. In the fall, we should find many large orbweavers, but many other types of spiders as well. Participants are encouraged to take photos, and in some cases, feed the spiders to observe their prey-capture behavior. We will discuss do’s and don’ts of handling spiders! Get all your questions about spiders answered!
Q: What are the differences between a bird call and a bird song?
A: A bird call tends to serve a specific function and is primarily
innate rather than learned. A bird song is almost always learned and
is often customized by individual males.
EXAMPLES OF CALLS
Alarm calls alert every bird within hearing range that danger is
present, and all innately understand what the call means and act
accordingly. The alarm call of one species can be recognized by birds
of many other species.
Location calls let mates or birds in a flock know where the others
are. For example, when a Barred Owl calls during the day, a mate often
answers, sometimes from a good distance away. Each then knows where
the other is. Location calls can also identify good feeding and
nesting habitats.
A chick’s “feed me” call triggers a parental response to find and
bring food to its offspring. As the chicks get older, begging behavior
complements the call for food.
EXAMPLES OF SONGS
Male birds tend to sing more than females, and unmated males sing more
than mated ones. Males use songs to attract mates and to identify and
defend territory. The song warns other males to stay out of its
territory, and it invites females to come in. Males can recognize the
songs of neighbors and usually don’t pay any attention to them, but
they sing furiously if they hear the song of a stranger who might
enter their territory.
In selecting a mate, females may use the size and complexity of the
song to determine a male’s potential fitness as a partner. More mature
males usually have more elaborate songs which may indicate to the
female that the male is a survivor with more breeding experience and
better health.
A majority of songbirds have at least two different songs. The extreme
singer is the male Brown Thrasher which is estimated to have over
3,000 song types.
I operate five game cameras on trails, roads and edges at Cypress Dome and Caracara Prairie Preserve. You may have seen one or more of them when hiking trails there. They are tied to trees, often cabbage palms, or posts where they get a clear view of whatever walks past.
These cameras photograph anything that walks past them, day or night. Since these cameras were installed, they have photographed raccoons, deer, bobcats, wild hogs, panthers, raccoons, turkeys, sandhills, hikers, their dogs, horses, hawks, cows, raccoons, possums, vultures, and more raccoons. Most of these pictures—at least for animals– were taken at night because that is when wildlife are most active and least likely to encounter humans.
Here are a very few of the many thousands of pictures. I also share these with FWC and Collier County Conservation Collier in effort to help enhance the monitoring program they established years ago. These are mostly daylight pictures to capture colors. Remember that you share the hiking trails of Cypress Dome and Caracara Prairie Preserve with wildlife who call this home.
If you happen to see my game cameras while you are out enjoying the CREW trails please respect the ongoing research by not tampering with them. You can get involved with the CREW volunteer program, or report any suspicious activity by emailing crewtrust@crewtrus.mystagingwebsite.com or calling 239-657-2253.
Below are first hand observations from our volunteer Dick Brewer. Who does weekly visits to Bird Rookery Swamp and very week sends us incredible stories of the magical 12 mile loop. If you would like to see more of his observations visit: http://www.dickbrewer.org/CREW.html
“Below are observations from BRS on June 6. Great day for butterflies with 19 species identified, plus three more skippers that I don’t know and haven’t identified. The attached photo shows two Silver-spotted Skippers, one Dun Skipper, and one Ruddy Daggerwing all feeding on the same Buttonbush plant.
The juvenile Barred Owl was on a limb over the pond at marker 6. It flew down into the grass one time where it caught and ate something very small; then, it flew back up to its limb and began hissing for an adult to bring it more food.
The otter family was in a water hold blanketed with Duckweed but each otter was quite successful at catching fish. The second photo shows one of the otters really chewing a fish it caught, first on one side of its mouth, then the other, and finally chomping with both sides.
The tail of the fish is still hanging out of the right side of its mouth in the fourth panel.
A: There are two problems with this question: a technicality, and a set of false assumptions.
First, the technicality. “Poisonous” and “venomous” are two different things. No spider is poisonous — harmful to eat, breathe, or touch. Mushrooms are sometimes poisonous, but spiders are not. Spiders are venomous; their toxins are proteins which only work when injected.
Second, all spiders do bite, but most local spiders are harmless because they are not aggressive and will not bite indiscriminately, or their fangs are simply too small to nip through our comparatively thick skin. Just because they are venomous does not mean they are
dangerous to people.
Spider venom does not exist to harm creatures which are too large for spiders to eat, like humans. The purpose of spider venom is to subdue the spider’s prey, almost always insects. In brief, it’s an insecticide.
Nevertheless, all larger spiders with a body length of a half inch or more should be treated with caution. Avoid flicking them away from your body. People allergic to bee stings may react more strongly to the bite of a spider than an ordinary person.
Bees and wasps kill more people in the United States in one year than spiders and snakes combined kill in ten years, and dogs and cats kill or injure more people each year than bees and wasps. Yet most people like dogs and cats and fear spiders and snakes.
Below are first hand observations from our volunteer Dick Brewer. This is a special week as we are luck to get Dick’s observations from all three trail systems. If you would like to see more of his observations visit: http://www.dickbrewer.org/CREW.html
Monday, May 11 Marsh Trails- 6:45 am-8:30 Cypress Dome 8:35am-10:30
Great Egret………………………………………………… 6………………………………………………………………
Black Vulture……………………………………………… 3………………………………………………………….. 25
Author Bernard F. Master chronicles his adventures as a medical professional, businessman and legendary birder in No Finish Line.
Bernard Master is a avid hiker of the CREW Trails, a phenomenal birder, and a great educator. We have been lucky to have him as a leader in our Strolling Science Seminar series. He lead Birding with the Master at Bird Rookery Swamp in March 2015 and will be returning in our 2015-2016 series. Below details Dr. Master’s new book.
No Finish Line, Discovering the World’s Secrets One Bird at a Time, is one man’s epic journey through life as a successful doctor, businessman, lifelong birder and internationally recognized conservationist. Readers will be mesmerized with his travel adventures spanning six continents and 105 countries. He shares his most exciting adventures searching for the rarest birds in the world. He is the first American to see a representative from each of the 229 bird families in the world, as well as Vireo masteri, a bird in Colombia named after him.
Whether he is meeting Queen Noor of Jordan to discuss birds and world conservation or attending a special dinner in his honor with Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands to receive a commendation in recognition of his world conservation efforts, there is always an interesting story to tell. His forays take him to exotic locations including Venezuela where he rediscovered a bird that had been absent for fifty years. Additional adventures include a thwarted kidnapping in Brazil. His quest to see a representative from all the bird families takes him to Rwanda, the Arabian Peninsula, Cameroon and China, providing readers with photos of extraordinary birds and accounts of his 7,800 species to date.
In between birding trips, Dr. Master was busy building two thriving companies, Health Power, Inc. and its sister company, the MEDCenters. His thirty-five year medical career begins with a tour in Vietnam as a battalion surgeon in a combat unit and a year as post surgeon for the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence School. Obstacles and successes are the narratives he shares outlining the intricacies of founding a healthcare company and ultimately taking it public on the NASDAQ.
“My own life has been one amazing adventure after another with no finish line in sight.” Author Bernard F. Master currently resides in Worthington, Ohio.
No Finish Line, Discovering the World’s Secrets One Bird at a Time is available on amazon.com.
Below are first hand observations from our volunteer Dick Brewer. Who does weekly visits to Bird Rookery Swamp and very week sends us incredible stories of the magical 12 mile loop. If you would like to see more of his observations visit: http://www.dickbrewer.org/CREW.html
“Water levels are down more, even after the recent rains. Consequently, gator and wading bird numbers are down too.
One Roseate Spoonbill spent most of the day at Ida’s Pond, so visitors coming in had a spoonbill, Banded Water Snake, gators, Anhingas, Red-bellied Turtle, Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, and Great Egrets to greet them.
The “hot spot” for the day was past marker 2 where the barbed wire fence ends and a service road splits to the left. There’s a depressionnat the junction of the main tram and the service road where a River Otter spent time catching and eating Crayfish that were left. A young
Barred Owl was in a cypress overhead, and while I was talking with four women who were enjoying the otter and owl, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo called from behind us. Later, hikers and bikers all commented about the otter and owl, so it was a great day for everyone.
The tram between markers 6 and 3 hasn’t been mowed recently, so the higher grasses are attracting lots of butterfly species, especially skippers”.